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Friday, March 1, 2013

To Sweat or Not to Sweat?

Check it out, a blazer!

Is it Friday already? That reminds me of something I read recently - "The bad news is, time flies. The good news is, you're the pilot." I'm in charge of my own destiny...where is it I want to go? I don't have an answer for you, but I'm working on one for myself. I've accomplished one of my biggest life goals - to get in shape. Now that I've found created (and maintain) success on that front, it's on to other things as well. No time like the present to take that next step.

So yesterday was supposed to be a gym day. By the time the afternoon rolled around I was feeling SO tired. I mean tired. I could've taken a nap at my desk. My body felt sore and I was still coughing. Nothing horrible but it didn't exactly sound good either. So I was thinking about taking a pass on the gym. I know, I rarely do that, which is partly why I thought I should. That said, I'd eaten a whole roll of Thin Mints and we had plans to go out to Indian Food for dinner. I knew it would be good to balance all those calories with a little sweat.

So I called out to my FB peeps (join us!) for their advice, thinking they'd tell me to rest. Noooo...the initial comments all told me to go. Some even said, GO! But the good thing was they reminded me I could do a light workout. Sometimes I forget about that option, get into my old black and white thinking - go to the gym or skip it. When really there's a third option, go to the gym but take it easy. So that's what I did. Although I admit, my take it easy could have been easier. Some people did tell me to skip it, btw.

I did 25 minutes on the upright bike, level 6 (instead of my normal 8) and then I did chest/triceps/core. Despite taking an AccelGel I was dragging through my whole workout and felt like I'd made a mistake, that I should've skipped the gym altogether. Oh, but I did a set of dumbbell chest presses again with 30 pound dumbbells. I asked
a kid at the gym to spot me but turned out I didn't need
help. I left the gym feeling a bit beat up but I didn't regret going, at least I gave it a try.

Eventually Miguel and I got out of the house and to dinner. I love Indian food, so comfort foody and full of flavor. We had vegetable samosas, naan, tikka masala and shrimp in a curry sauce. Oh, and I had a beer (and shared a second one with Miguel) but was too full for desert. At this point I was very glad I'd gone to the gym. Anyway, we did a little shopping after dinner, Miguel needed a few things for his trip and I bought a dark chocolate bar with almonds, of which I almost ate the whole thing (I finished it off today). We came home and watched an episode of Game of Thrones and I went to bed exhausted.

Today I started feeling tired again in the afternoon with body aches and general malaise. I came home early from work and went straight to bed. I've got the busiest week you can imagine, PLUS Miguel will be out of town, so I can't afford to be sick. I don't know if I slept but I know I was in bed for a few hours and the rest/nap, plus some ibuprofen, made me feel much better. So I changed into my gym clothes with plan to walk and do weights, since it's the cardio that really takes it out of me.

Just sharing a little Athleta body envy. Those arms, those abs!

I started with a 1 mile walk on the treadmill, varying the incline from 1-4%, mostly at about 4mph. Took me roughly 15 minutes to walk the mile and then I started into back/biceps/core. I had a small victory in being able to do 4 pullups for my first set, 3 for my second set. Might be time to add a third set. Even if I can only do 1 I'll be that much closer to my mini-goal of 3 sets of five. Pullups are no joke. And these are neutral grip so I get a lot of help from my biceps. The other thing I did was increase my weight on decline crunches from 15 to 20 pounds (only on the first set). Again, no joke.

I left the gym feeling really good. So glad I snapped out of whatever was ailing me and moved my body some. My eating has been fair to, well, fair. Still munching more than I need to in the evening but nothing insane. Oh, and my weight this week was just fine, 138.8 pounds - and 25% body fat! I'd like to see 25% a few more times before I call that goal met. Ok, that's all I got. It's almost 10:30 and I'd like to get a full night sleep so I'm off to bed.

I vote for the walk too...when trying to get pregnant i had been doing a fair bit of running til my husband suggested I didn't care enough to trying giving it up (nothing like some guilt); anyway I caved and started walking and truly do find it a great physical and mental stress release - and you do get close to a sweat. Running can be either exhausting or exhilerating, i find the walk finds a nice middle ground during stressful times plus I notice more 'roses' along the way...stay healthy, you are doing absolutely wonderfully, i am in awe (ha, I have just one child and am off work, how do you single mum it while working with two kids AND work out while Miguel is away??) ;)

How do you measure your body fat? I have a scale that supposedly measures it but I think it is just doing it by my height and weight average. I stepped on it one day after accidentally clicking my husband's setting and it told me my body fat percentage was 15% less. So it must have different standards for men and women.

That's a maintainer! :) Actually a 10 minute walk would do if you can't go for a routine workouts. Me, I usually walk or jog, just for a few minutes on the treadmill. Sweating makes me feel losing all the unhealthy things inside me. It's not all about losing weight but to feel active all throughout the day. :)